DC’s cinematic legacy took a significant blow with the release ofJoker: Folie à Deux, but its dismal performance at the global box office makes one DC movie look even worse by comparison. Despite starting incredibly strong with a billion-dollar debut,Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker suffered a huge losswith his sequel. The divisive second installment picked up with Arthur Fleck incarcerated at Arkham Asylum four years after his murder spree and the televised shooting of Robert De Niro’s Murray Franklin, which sparked citywide riots in Gotham courtesy of a newfound legion of advocates rallying against Gotham’s elites.
Joker: Folie à Deuxis neitherDC’s lowest-grossing movienor its worst-rated, earning around the same as the DCEU’sBirds of Preyand more thanThe Suicide SquadandWonder Woman 1984. It’s a different story, however, when looking atJoker: Folie à Deux’s performance compared to Batman movies specifically. Batman is one ofDC’s most profitable superheroes, so it’s no wonder that there are so many Batman movies and spinoffs in the cinematic sphere. Unfortunately, the general reliability of the franchise stumbled withJoker: Folie à Deux.
Joker 2’s Box Office Results Were One Of The Biggest Surprises Of 2024
It Earned Just 20% Of Joker’s Total Box Office
Joker: Folie à Deuxgrossed just $206 million worldwideaccording toThe Numbers, against a reported production budget of around the same ballpark. This means the movie was a bomb, spending less than a month in theaters before releasing digitally for home media. This total falls $30 million short ofBatman & Robin, which was one ofthe worst-rated Batman moviesever released, and the death knell forBatman’s first cinematic franchise.Joker: Folie à Deuxfared much better critically, though it fell significantly short of its prequel, which earned widespread acclaim albeit marred by a measure of controversy.
The fact that the sequel earned just 20% of Joker’s total box office was less predictable, especially in the same year that Joker’s record was surpassed by a Marvel movie.
The extent to whichJoker: Folie à Deuxfell short of its predecessor is shocking. 2019’sJokermade history when it became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time (an accolade snatched five years later by the MCU’sDeadpool & Wolverine), which made a sequel inevitable. The fact that the sequel earned just 20% ofJoker’s total box office was less predictable, especially in the same year thatJoker’s record was surpassed by a Marvel movie.Joker: Folie à Deuxnow boasts the unfortunate accolade of beingthe second-lowest-grossing Batman movieof all time.
Joker 2’s Box Office Results Make Catwoman Look Even Worse Again
Catwoman Earned Less Than Half Of Joker 2’s Global Box Office
Despite takingBatman & Robin’s spot in the bottom three,Joker: Folie à Deuxis saved from being the lowest-grossing-Batman movie of all time by 2004’sCatwoman.Catwomanwas an ill-fated attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Batman in general and Michelle Pfeiffer’s rendition of Catwoman inBatman Returns. Pfeiffer was originally slated to reprise her role in a leading capacity, though nearly a decade of production culminated in Halle Berry stepping in (as Patience Phillips) before the movie released in 2004 andgrossed just $82 million at the global box office against a reported budget of $100 million.
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Catwoman has featured in many of Batman’s most famous stories, played by some of TV and movies’ most well-known actresses.
This means thatJoker: Folie à Deuxearned more than double the global box office ofCatwoman. Worse still is the fact thatJoker: Folie à Deuxmade about as much as it cost to make (though this still makes it a bomb when factoring in additional expenses for things like marketing), whereasCatwomanfell short of its production budget by around $20 million. The widespread disapproval ofJoker: Folie à Deuxmay have been shocking, but the fact that it beat outCatwomanto such an extent suggests thatCatwoman’s unfortunate record may never be beaten.
Why Catwoman’s Box Office Is One Of DC’s Worst
Catwoman Was Critically Lambasted Upon Release
WhileBatman Returnswas the perfect follow-up to Tim Burton’s iconicBatmanin 1992 and met with around the same level of approval, DC’s first Batman film franchise would only go downhill from there.Catwomanlanguished in development hell for several years until the character’s popularity had fadedby the time the movie was released in 2004. Still, the overall quality ofCatwomanis mostly to blame for its financial failures, as it was universally panned upon release and is still regarded as one of theworst comic book movies ever made.
Halle Berry earned a Razzie Award for her performance inCatwoman, which she good-naturedly accepted in person while holding her Oscar.
Catwomanwas slammed from just about every angle, thoughtwo major contributors to its critical failure were the baffling decision to distance the character from Batman entirely and generally running roughshod over Catwoman’s comic book origins and costume. It’s here that parallels are drawn betweenCatwomanandJoker: Folie à Deuxas the latter also prompted criticism for doing away with one glaring factor that made the ill-fated franchise so popular to begin with: the Joker himself.Joker: Folie à Deuxended with Fleck relinquishing the mantle before being killed - a bold decision that ultimately didn’t pay off.
Joker: Folie a Deux
Cast
Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Todd Phillips' critically acclaimed comic book thriller Joker. Reprising his Academy Award-winning performance as the failed comedian Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix revisits the iconic DC character alongside Lady Gaga, who makes her debut as Joker’s lover Harley Quinn in this standalone continuity of the DC Universe.
Catwoman
A cosmetics industry employee is murdered after discovering a dangerous secret about an anti-ageing product. However, an Egyptian cat saves her, giving her the power of speed and the senses of an agile feline.
